Ed.note: added individual highlights video; a few stylistic changes and assorted edits; good work!

INTRODUCTION

Ever since it became officially official that Cesc Fabregas was going to join Chelsea, much has been written and said about the player, the club and most importantly the way the team plays. This last point became particularly prominent when it became apparent that the ex-Arsenal captain would play relatively deep in midfield, and not necessarily in a strict three man formation. Is he the signing of the summer? Well that remains to be seen, but we've had a reasonable look at his early season form and it's certainly worth taking a look at multiple aspects of his performance in more detail. Most of the content will be drawn from the game away at Everton but I will touch on observations from other pieces of play alongside.

NOTE

It's very likely that this piece won't have a well defined style and I in no way consider myself to be an expert. It will consist of opinion and observation extracted from match footage. The time stamps and other details I mention are taken directly from the coverage provided by Sky Sports so there maybe some discrepancy if you watched the Everton game via another provider. One aspect they often bring up during analysis on Sky is the fact that they have a full pitch camera angle that enables them to identify where any player is on the pitch at any given time. This is much harder with TV coverage only due it to following the ball, but, with multiple watches and the ability to pause the match it is possible. I have seen the Everton game about three times now, the last time focusing solely on our number four.

I'm writing this piece for discussion purposes. It is also a welcome distraction from the university work I'm supposed to be doing. If you wish to be critical, that's fine, I'm not a professional, but please try to offer something constructive. Finally, the one thing I rarely am is succinct, I am liable to mention many things that are not particularly direct so apologies in advance if you find I am meandering. Please try to bear with me, and if you do make it to the end, thank you. QB

FABREGAS, OPEN LINES, AND STYLISTIC IDEALS

The sight of Cesc Fabregas in attire emblazoned with the crest of Chelsea Football Club is still not an entirely comfortable one. There is a momentary kind of tension: an internal expectation that any second now he will pull his shirt over his head to reveal the colors of Barcelona and then hitch up his sleeve to show that his elbow tattoo extends upwards to form Arsenal artillery. I expect that it will take me a little while longer to dispel this feeling, and the positive things that Cesc gives us (i.e. with the ball) certainly help. However, it feels a little like I've stumbled into an alternate dimension where we have captured Fabregas, Frank Lampard adorns the house of Manchester City, we have a striker who is not only lethal but ‘has been the best player in the league for the first three games' (he still probably won't win player of the month) and we have declared open war on the north.

Fabregas's history is impossible to ignore and this makes him (or at least made him) a polarizing signing. What he undoubtedly is though, is fabulous with the ball at his feet. The style we want Chelsea to adopt is completely down to personal preference. We are one of the most adaptable teams in Europe, we aren't Arsenal who try to train and play the same way every week regardless of the opponent. I do not enjoy watching us in open games, although I understand the logic that if we open the game up against teams from around the relegation zone and say 'you score three we'll score six', we'd be more likely to win. A 1-0 win would do nicely for me every week. This new identity that the team and The Manager are currently trying to develop is certainly not what you would term ‘Classic Mourinho.'

‘This tactical battle between the managers is like a game of chess' has become a modern football cliché, particularly in more defensive, low-scoring leagues like Serie A, even if it's probably not quite as extreme as when Mourinho was managing Inter (ed. note: here's data from last year Re big five European leagues comparison). It's become an almost meaningless commentary phrase, but football and chess are closer than you think (if you don't believe me on this one, Football and Chess by Adam Wells, I would highly recommend). Of course, if you try to stretch it too far, it falls down because the pieces (players) in football are more flexible and less defined in role, and because of the fact that football involves continuous movement. Why am I bringing this up? Because I love chess? Although that is true, I'm talking about chess because some of chess theory pertains even more directly to a player like Fabregas.

An open ‘line' or ‘position' in a chess game is one where lots of rapid calculation may be required, and space is available on the board for the heavy pieces to move in flurries of threats and counterattacks. Fabregas is exactly the kind of player you want in a game of football like this. I realize that all players are better with time and space but I'll get to that in a moment.

Whether or not the Premier League is ‘the best league in the world' is debatable because that question encapsulates several smaller ones about what ‘best' really means. What there is little doubt about, is that it is the most end-to-end, frenetically fast-paced, high tempo league in Europe. Certainly less focused on patient build-up than a league like Spain. Modern football increasingly does not allow for ‘luxury players' this means players like Ozil at Arsenal, (not at Madrid because the team was set-up differently) they ghost in and out of games and have to be compensated for in other areas because they offer the team so little without the ball. I have seen Fabregas described as ‘entirely useless defensively' and while that's not wholly inaccurate he does possess reasonable physical stature and is slightly less of a ‘luxury player' than quite a few others. The pace of the league is at the foundation of why it didn't work out as well as Fabregas would have hoped at Barcelona.

Barcelona dominate the ball in almost every game they play, so he had space and time. However, that's not a true ‘open' game because Barcelona maintain a significant space advantage constantly. The team focuses on clever passing angles and primarily retaining possession of the ball. When Fabregas finally returned to the Camp Nou many envisaged him taking on the role which Xavi has had for the majority of the last decade. They are however, very different players. Xavi once declared that he was disappointed if he didn't touch the ball 100 times in a match. From a Spanish perspective, Thiago Alcantara is far more likely to become this player.

Fabregas never truly found his role at Barcelona. Simply put, in actuality, their style was too elaborate for his play. He wanted to play the killer pass, which I like to call a skewer, to go for the throat, too often and too soon. And, when it didn't come off, they surrendered possession. This is not an idea which I came up with, but one I have read about as a primary reason as to why it can be so difficult for a player from the outside to fit in at Barcelona.

When Fabregas signed for Chelsea, Mourinho spoke of ‘the speed of his football brain.' This is evident if you watch his old team, Arsenal play with Wilshere in central midfield. Fabregas's football education means even in very little space he so rarely gets caught on the ball, particularly in comparison with the way Wilshere currently plays. The Arsenal player does not react quickly enough, often holding onto the ball for far too long, and is frequently fouled, offering little protection to his glass ankles.

If Fabregas can record decent stats playing in an ill-defined role at Barcelona, you can imagine how potent Mourinho believes he can be with his speed of thought and skewer passes, in a league with a higher tempo and many more attacks and counterattacks.

EVERTON vs. CHELSEA, Saturday, 30 AUG 2014

I'm going to try not to talk about the game in general or even defensively because that has been done ad nauseam. I could talk for a very long time about Jose Mourinho as a defensive coach but I think we've had enough of my football imaginings for one day, so instead I'm solely going to focus on everything Fabregas did in the game, until he was substituted for Didier Drogba.

FIRST HALF

As the game kicks off Fabregas floats forward, and as he leaves the centre circle he drifts towards Willian's wing to try and offer a passing option. Something you will notice if you watch the first half again is Fabregas's persistent lateral movement, in this period of the game he moves far more from touchline to touchline than from box-to-box. I'm unsure if this is to compensate for Ramires's woeful passing but he seems to be always trying to be available for a short pass from the Brazilian.

Fabregas is not in the team to be a goal scorer. He's an architect, a goal creator and from that point of view he's got a good number of assists already. He clearly has a strong desire to have the ball, and I noticed many occasions where Matic and Ramires were constantly looking for him with short balls; the only concern there is that we lack flexibility in those midfield roles.

Ramires instead chooses to pass to Willian, who is facing our goal and lays it off to Fabregas. Gary Neville made the point in commentary that Everton gave Fabregas far too much time, and while this is true, as Diego Costa arced his run to stay onside, Fabregas still took out 6 defenders with a skewer pass.

After Everton Kick off, at around 2.20, as Matic tangles with Naismith, Fabregas can be seen working his way towards Dave's left back zone, indicating the lateral drift I mentioned before.

2.40 He peels into space below the center circle and opens a passing lane to Ramires on the right with a deeper ‘through-ball'

3.05 He's closer to the center circle than Matic as the ball is played to Ivanovic inside the box; the whole team is squeezing up.

4.20 Hazard becomes the player furthest forward and Costa drops deeper in front of Dave. Fabregas tries to press higher up the pitch but is easily bypassed.

5.00 He recovers ground to slide tackle McGeady and Naismith is incorrectly flagged for offside.

6.00 Chelsea press better as a team lead by Costa

6.30 Poor pass from Ramires. Fabregas badly fouls McGeady.

7.00 He drifts across the pitch and is seen shouting in the direction of the back four. I've no idea if he's a player of authority but communication is important.

7.24 Matic finds Fabregas in space. Something that was more evident in the first half than when the game became far more broken and stretched is Fabregas's awareness and appreciation of space. There are often four Everton players in close proximity and he can appear to open spaces that weren't previously there. This actually wasn't one of his best games in possession as Chelsea, at 2-0 up could have done with more metronomic passing and a semblance of control in the game. Usually though he's in a good position, especially after a favorable turn-over to get us on the front foot. He lofts a slightly over hit ball towards Hazard running diagonally in behind, taking out 7 opposing players. This of course, is the first instance in the game where Tim Howard should have been sent off, handling the ball a good yard outside the box.

Fabregas to Hazard is a frequent combination during the course of the match and I would expect to see this continue throughout the season with the added intimidation of Costa. On Michael Cox's excellent website zonalmarking.net you can find a couple of pieces about how good Costa was at Atletico, and more than one piece about Mourinho's previous best sides. Reading them together, it's not hard to see why our Manager believes that Costa is the perfect center forward. Michael specifically mentions Mourinho's love of a center forward who can occupy both center-halves simultaneously, see Drogba in his prime and Milito at Inter. Well, Costa might just be one better, he's not only physical but offers a constant threat in behind in company with Hazard and alike. Additionally, something notable later in the game, he's adept at running the channels and moving the ball into wide areas, therefore he's hard to mark and demands the attention of the entire opposition back four.

8.00 Fabregas forming some nice midfield triangles but Chelsea still struggling to slow the game.

9.00 Costa dropping into midfield and then Fabregas gives the ball away.

9.20 Ball won by a combination of Matic and Ramires. Costa receives the ball and loses it trying to get it to Matic. Fabregas was open and a better option.

9.30 Fabregas near the left back zone flicks the ball around the corner to Hazard and is caught by Naismith, the fast ball movement I previously referred to.

10.00 From the resulting free kick Fabregas takes it very short to Terry and gets it back. I like Fabregas trying to pass the ball and dictate the game but it might not have been such a good idea to push the tempo here.

10.20 Matic gives the ball away looking for Fabregas.

11.14 Fabregas is in front of the pivot and the formation is far closer to 4-2-3-1. Willian runs across the pitch with the ball and we end up with all three attacking midfielders and Costa in the Everton right back zone.

11.25 Ramires looks for Fabregas dropping deeper, Chelsea still need to calm the game.

11.40 Fabregas has a blocked speculative effort from well outside the box.

12.20 Gary Neville talks about Chelsea being dangerous on the counterattack. I feel the team shape could have been better here. Last season, with Oscar very deep at times we seemed much better at staying compact when in the lead, maybe we should have looked to play more extremely on the counter here.

13.30 Ball put out by Costa trying to hold it up. Chelsea can't get out of their defensive third. Fabregas shouts in the direction of Azpilicueta.

14.00 Chelsea are having problems defending quick switches of play. The right side is supposed to be covered by Ivanovic, Ramires, and Willian but the left side does not look as solid. Coleman is a threat, Hazard recovers in time.

15.40 Lukaku hits the bar from a corner. Chelsea have left Hazard up and Fabregas and Dave on the edge of the box.

16.00 Fabregas is first to a loose ball but is easily out muscled by Mirallas. Chelsea lack cohesion, they are neither pressing nor dropping off and Everton can play through the broken press.

18.00 Cahill is getting pressed in the right back zone and has a lack of passing options. Chelsea did not actually deal with high pressure very well in this game. I feel intense pressing is something more teams will use against us and we need to improve our playing the ball out from the back.

20.00 Fabregas shouting again, he loses the ball in combination with Hazard. Costa shows his all pitch work rate and makes a tackle in the left back zone.

22.00 Fabregas breaks beyond Costa into the box. This is something I want to see more of, we have attacking midfielders but not really any Lampard-esque deep midfield runners, although timing is key.

24.00 Fabregas puts a free kick into the box. His delivery so far has been good but this one is a waste. He needs to either aim more for the penalty spot or whip the ball in with more pace.

26.40 All three of our midfielders are on the edge of the box but McGeady still has time and space to shoot.

27.00 Costa shows another valuable asset with an excellent clearing header from a corner.

28.00 Ivanovic wins the ball and then Fabregas gives it away. Seconds later he retains it well under pressure and finds Ivanovic who promptly gives it away. At this point Mirallas stands on Fabregas's fingers and he's not too pleased about it.

29.30 Matic gets the ball to Fabregas, it opens up nicely and he has a shot from 18 yards that is deflected just wide.

30.00 One thing about Fabregas's time at Barcelona is that he did play multiple positions. Perhaps playing the false nine has made him better at pulling defenders around without the ball. Here he pulls Baines halfway across the pitch but there is no Chelsea player there to exploit the space.

32.40 Good challenge by Fabregas giving one back to Mirallas. Again Fabregas elects to take a quick free kick which I'm not sure is the best idea.

33.15 Matic finds Fabregas deep in the Chelsea half. Poor lofted ball to Hazard. These clipped passes in the air have been one of the best things about Fabregas so far, particularly when looking for Schurrle, however they are best used further up the pitch.

33.46 Fabregas is left up near the corner flag and Willian drops into central midfield.

34.20 Mirallas has shooting space on the edge of the box due to lack of pressure from the midfield but it's an easy save.

36.00 Chelsea finally display a better defensive structure with the back four shielded by all three midfielders. Dave blocks a cross and Thibaut catches.

37.00 Fabregas is sitting in front of the pivot again, making us easier to play through and Ramires is not strong enough in the tackle with Barry.

41.00 Fabregas is forward of Matic and Ramires, making a triangle that Everton are finding far too easy to play through. I understand that we are now playing in a different way and it's a different style of performance, but compare this to our best away match last season vs Liverpool and it isn't anything like as solid. That day the midfield 3 of Matic, Mikel and Lampard where much flatter like a defensive wall.

43.00 Fabregas drops deeper as Matic goes forward and robs Jagielka of the ball. Diego Costa hits the post after being incorrectly flagged offside.

44.00 The ball gets past Hazard in midfield. Mirallas had the ball initially; Fabregas challenged, failed to get the ball and did not follow his run. Ramires and Matic are sucked towards the ball in the left back zone with their backs to Mirallas running into the box. Mirallas beats Thibaut with the header since he had the run on the defenders; additionally Baines and Naismith were in open space at the far post.

CHELSEA THEN AND NOW

Comparisons with the team of 95 points are largely a pointless exercise, mainly because that team was just so good, but also because football, the league and The Manager have all changed since then. However, from a stylistic standpoint they are worth talking about because of the current makeup of the Chelsea squad. If you want to relive the brilliance of that team go here.

Everyone knows the problem for Chelsea last year was goals. So this year we need to improve in attack, obviously transfers have done a lot for this already, but the crux of Mourinho's task this season is score more without compromising our defensive solidity.

We are going to need a high defensive line more often this season, and as we've seen in the past that is a problem because our current center backs lack pace (Shout outs to Bassman). The team have to defend as a unit and that has an impact on the midfield. The midfield three that played at Everton has a reasonable amount of bite but not enough power and muscle, especially in comparison to Lampard-Essien-Makelele. If you look back, it's only really Matic who doesn't get pushed off the ball. The formation we are playing with is a hybrid, certainly not a distinct 4-3-3 like the 2005 team. OK we are trying to play more progressively, but we lack versatility in the midfield. More presence without loss of guile would make this team even better. An all round player in the mold of prime-Essien would be perfect.

SECOND HALF

45.00 Fabregas pushes forward and Costa peels wide. Willian drops into central midfield.

48.00 Fabregas gives the ball away trying to be too clever in our left back zone.

52.00 Excellent through ball by Fabregas, running it off the outside of his foot. Costa's finishing lets him down.

53.00 Fabregas retains the ball well; he's looking to keep us on the front foot with a space advantage.

57.00 Ivanovic wins the ball in the Everton left back zone. Fabregas receives the pass, there is plenty of space and he arguably releases the ball to Costa too early.

63.00 Terry clips the ball long again due to lack of short options. Everton get behind the Chelsea midfield too easily and Cahill makes a last ditch tackle.

In the second half Fabregas is drifting laterally much less, taking up a position on the left hand side.

65.30 Lovely turn on the halfway-line from Fabregas and an excellent ball to Hazard gets Chelsea on the attack.

67.00 Fabreags, Matic and Hazard making some neat passing triangles on the left. McCarthy is never going to match Hazard for pace but Fabregas is in good position in the box and drags Coleman away. After the own goal Fabregas looks over at the away fans with raised fists.

68.00 Everton easily get behind the Chelsea midfield again, Naismith is in oceans of space and scores.

71.00 Brilliant piece of control and a great pass from Fabregas to Ramires, who gives the ball away looking for Hazard, shortly after this Fabregas is in the left back zone defending with Terry.

72.00 Cross from the right from Willian, breaks to Fabregas on the edge of the box, he mis-controls and Everton gain possession.

73.00 Fabregas makes an excellent run into space near the penalty spot but Hazard fails to cross. Again we have the problem that all our attacking players are in the same quadrant of the field.

75.00 Mikel comes on for Willian. Ramires moves to the right, Fabregas looking to get forward particularly on the left. Fabregas is a one-man wall for the free kick that lead to the Eto'o goal.

77.00 Fabregas further left and Hazard goes central. Nice celebration after the Matic goal, Fabregas seems to have a good relationship with the rest of the squad.

80.00 Fabregas is deeper on the left again. Chelsea are leaving Hazard as the only player up field. After the Thibaut wonder save, Fabregas looks to break forward but Hazard loses the ball through poor control after a clearance from Mikel. Seconds later, Fabregas is booked for a foul on Eto'o on the edge of the Chelsea box.

83.00 Fabregas is moving laterally trying to defend the edge of our box. He gets in a half-decent defensive header.

85.20 Fast counter from Chelsea with good running by Ramires, Fabregas is in so much space on the left hand side, unfortunately it's one of the worst passes I've ever seen and the ball doesn't reach him.

86.00 Naismith fouls Ramires and Fabregas goes mad at the referee.

88.00 Fabregas is substituted with Mourinho thinking more defensively and, in Drogba, bringing on the best defender of corners in the Premier League era.

Time stamps are approximate.

I know that reading everything that one player did in a match is quite dry, so I have tried to expand and make some other general points. Quite often when I review matches I use StatsZone, but stats never give you the full story. I'm still warming to Fabregas in a Chelsea shirt (even if I do love the yellow kit) and I have largely the same concerns as others. There will be games where we have to be ultra solid and right now we can only speculate on whether our midfield will pass the test.

Fabregas's time at Chelsea may ultimately be very fruitful. I expect him to skewer many defenses as he gives the DC19 Bomber excellent opportunities to strike. It's just that I still feel the next few years for Chelsea will be defined by what happens to our midfield in upcoming transfer windows.